Hi reader! If you are looking to get into modern, this might be a nice way to start.
Right now, modern is a very fun format, most games are dynamic and the metagame is very diverse.
Unfortunately, it is not an easy format for the budget player, some staples and top decks are extremely expensive.
When I started playing modern I tried Monogreen Aggro (MGA). It is a nice deck, sometimes it is lightning fast. Overall I didn't like it so much, the deck felt a bit fragile and uninteractive. While I did win some games, I always felt there wasn't much I could do against well timed mass removal, "hold&win" combo decks like scapeshift or unfair ramp decks, like green tron.
I was looking for something that could interact more, disrupting the opponent's game plan if necessary, also some modern's creatures are very strong, so being able to removal some is very desirable.
I tested a couple budget decks, and this deck ended up being my favourite, there are some cons, but there are also a lot of pros:
Pros:
-> Fun to play, swarmy, tribal, can keep gas for a while but it is not a slow deck.
-> Very simple game plan, very consistent, doesn't mulligan a lot.
-> Interactive, value cards that rip opponent's hand while adding value to the table.
-> Good sideboard vs combo and control decks.
-> Some of the interactions aren't very well known and some opponents make mistakes on that.
-> Great options for creature removal.
-> Pack rat is very strong and benefit from swarmyard.
Cons:
-> Not versatile, only general removal is ratchet bomb and that can be dealt with.
-> A lot of nonbasic lands can be a liability
-> Not slow, but not a very fast in defense deck either, sometimes it can lose to insane "red deck win" or "infect" starts. (MGA had a pretty good game against RDW, but had a hard time vs infect also).
-> Vulnerable to protection from black and hexproof. (it is possible to tune if needed)
-> Current list is not very good vs affinity (it is possible to tune if needed)
-> Obstinate Baloth is annoying.
Overall I think it is a well positioned and fun deck to play, even more considering it is a budget deck.
Here is the current list:
24 lands:
13 swamp
2 howltooth hollow
1 urborg, tomb of Y
4 mutavault
4 swarmyard
1cc: (10)
3 disfigure
3 typhoid rats
4 blackmail
2cc: (17)
4 ravenous rats
4 pack rat
3 nantuko shade
3 ratchet bomb
3 Go for the Throat
Other: (9)
4 chittering rats
4 Throat Slitter
1 Okiba, Gang Shinobi
Sideboard:
4 duress
4 wrench mind
4 relic of progenitus
3 Devour Flesh
Here you can check some videos of a 2man against a Temur deck abusing training grounds and some creatures with strong abilities.
It felt like I was playing against a very strong deck, still I managed to win 2-1. Can't say the games were easy but the deck did perform.
I sideboarded out some of the throat slitters because opponent had a lot of black creatures, sided out typhoid rats (he is there mostly for fast defense) and put in wrench mind (no artifacts there and the opponent's deck needed 4 more lands to perform well, I felt I could get lucky with wrench and slow him down), some devour flesh and a couple relic of progenitus (against delve and life from the loam).
Game 1: (I lose)
https://youtu.be/QrmAliNipvA
Game 2 (I win)
https://youtu.be/n9e9uOpqI9o
Game 3 (I win)
https://youtu.be/VgjJcVDCWVY
Another video, this time against Abzan:
Games 1 & 2:
https://youtu.be/H_0xFIPfawI
If you are looking for a budget deck in modern that can interact and perform decently, try this one, it is not explosive but it is consistent and I am having a good time playing it. Feels like the deck has no auto-wins but it has no auto-losses either (with very specific exceptions).
The most expensive card there is probably mutavault, but I feel it is very important for the deck, at the moment, this deck costs 45tix to build in MTGO. This is a very low budget for modern.
You can check the tappedout.net list (with current price) here:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ratsbugs/
Oh, one more thing, I really tried to abuse aether vial in this deck but it didn't work so well. If you manage to build a strong rats list with vial please send me! =)
Have fun!
terça-feira, 14 de junho de 2016
domingo, 20 de dezembro de 2015
Colors of MTGO pauper: BLACK. (Tortured Zombies)
When I started playing MTG, black was among my favourite colors. I used to look at cards like terror or dark banish and think "so, you can destroy a creature that costed like, six mana with a 2 mana spell, this is simply amazing!".
Now, many years later, I will talk about a deck that has almost no removal at all (at least for a black deck).
I know... MBC is probably the most powerful monoblack deck you can build in pauper. Abusing the power of cards like chittering rats and liliana specter brings joy to the thoughts of any darkmage.
But, one thing I am trying to bring here are decks that aren't played so often. I am pretty sure you can find great articles about MBC on the web already.
I want to talk about another monoblack strategy: ZOMBIES!
Yup, maybe our little putrid friends aren't so disruptive, but they do have some perks.
First, lets talk about the KING OF ZOMBIES, mister gray merchant of asphodel.
Yup, this is one of the staple pieces on MBC decks, well it is one of the central pieces in my zombies list as well. The idea here is to play merchant, and possibly recur it as many times necessary to drain the opponent.
Another great card for zombish draining is good old gempalm polluter. For 2 mana you can draw a card and cause some damage to your opponent life total, again, you can rinse and repeat many times with this deck, until the job is done.
The rest of the deck is basically trying to survive or trying to recur the graveyard, one of the central recurring pieces in the deck is good old tortured existence because of that, I am trying to use as many creatures in the deck as I can, because tortured existence is a better card when you have a decent share of creatures to select with it.
Because we need to reach 5 mana to put gray into play I also added 4 dimir aqueduct, this will slow down the pace a bit in the early game but I feel reaching 5 mana is more important than having a superfast start with this deck. (This is not a suicidal version of zombies)
The current list:
Lands:
16 swamps
4 dimir aqueduct (could be any karoo land)
1 mana:
4 Putrid Imp
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Shambling Goblin
4 Tortured existence
4 Ghoulcaller's Chant
2 mana:
4 Nameless Inversion
3 mana:
4 Ghoulraiser
4 mana:
4 Grave Scrabbler
5 mana:
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
6 mana:
4 Gempalm Polluter
Total creatures: 28
Total non-creatures: 12
Draining outlets: 8
Recurring spells/creatures: 16
Removal spells/creatures: 8
I don't have a sideboard for it yet.
So, the deck isn't very easy to play, but it is superfun, feels nice to hold and grind, until you gempalm for 7 on the EOT and gray for 8 on your turn.
We have 12 small guys to flood the field with little zombies, this will help gempalm to be more effective on the early turns. Also those little guys have some utility attached to them: Carrion Feeder let's you send whatever zombie you need back to the graveyard, so you can return it to hand and re-use it, this works nicely with Gray Merchant or Grave Scrabbler.
Putrid Imp is an alternative way to discard Grave Scrabbler this can be useful if you have no tortured existence in play. Shambling Goblin is a great blocker, also it can kill small guys and be recurred sometimes. Nothing feels better than killing a recently played delver with our little goblin.
Ghoulcaller's Chant is great in this deck, not only it will recur creatures, it can bring back Nameless Inversion. For only one mana, you get to re-use 2 cards.
Ghoulraiser doesn't give you much control over the card that is coming back, but he is a pretty powerful card in this deck. Don't forget he can also return Nameless Inversion to hand.
I am sorry, I don't have a sideboard for this deck yet. I would guess it could have problens against fast hard to block combo decks, like izzet-fiend, selesnya-hexproof-auras and infect. So some of the sideboard could be dedicated to address those.
Also, graveyard hate is a problem. If you can't recur the graveyard, the deck is left with a bunch of bears that will probably be outsized by 4/4s and 5/5s. It is possible that some sort of defense against graveyard hate or some sort of alternative plan to put some pressure could be nice there.
We could go more beefy/aggro using bigger or evasive zombies and less graveyard recurring. Or splash some color to offer artifact removal. I guess I would try the first option, I guess there are some beefy zombies out there to abuse. (Embalmed Brawler?!)
That's it, cya! =)
Now, many years later, I will talk about a deck that has almost no removal at all (at least for a black deck).
I know... MBC is probably the most powerful monoblack deck you can build in pauper. Abusing the power of cards like chittering rats and liliana specter brings joy to the thoughts of any darkmage.
But, one thing I am trying to bring here are decks that aren't played so often. I am pretty sure you can find great articles about MBC on the web already.
I want to talk about another monoblack strategy: ZOMBIES!
Yup, maybe our little putrid friends aren't so disruptive, but they do have some perks.
First, lets talk about the KING OF ZOMBIES, mister gray merchant of asphodel.
Yup, this is one of the staple pieces on MBC decks, well it is one of the central pieces in my zombies list as well. The idea here is to play merchant, and possibly recur it as many times necessary to drain the opponent.
Another great card for zombish draining is good old gempalm polluter. For 2 mana you can draw a card and cause some damage to your opponent life total, again, you can rinse and repeat many times with this deck, until the job is done.
The rest of the deck is basically trying to survive or trying to recur the graveyard, one of the central recurring pieces in the deck is good old tortured existence because of that, I am trying to use as many creatures in the deck as I can, because tortured existence is a better card when you have a decent share of creatures to select with it.
Because we need to reach 5 mana to put gray into play I also added 4 dimir aqueduct, this will slow down the pace a bit in the early game but I feel reaching 5 mana is more important than having a superfast start with this deck. (This is not a suicidal version of zombies)
The current list:
Lands:
16 swamps
4 dimir aqueduct (could be any karoo land)
1 mana:
4 Putrid Imp
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Shambling Goblin
4 Tortured existence
4 Ghoulcaller's Chant
2 mana:
4 Nameless Inversion
3 mana:
4 Ghoulraiser
4 mana:
4 Grave Scrabbler
5 mana:
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
6 mana:
4 Gempalm Polluter
Total creatures: 28
Total non-creatures: 12
Draining outlets: 8
Recurring spells/creatures: 16
Removal spells/creatures: 8
I don't have a sideboard for it yet.
So, the deck isn't very easy to play, but it is superfun, feels nice to hold and grind, until you gempalm for 7 on the EOT and gray for 8 on your turn.
We have 12 small guys to flood the field with little zombies, this will help gempalm to be more effective on the early turns. Also those little guys have some utility attached to them: Carrion Feeder let's you send whatever zombie you need back to the graveyard, so you can return it to hand and re-use it, this works nicely with Gray Merchant or Grave Scrabbler.
Putrid Imp is an alternative way to discard Grave Scrabbler this can be useful if you have no tortured existence in play. Shambling Goblin is a great blocker, also it can kill small guys and be recurred sometimes. Nothing feels better than killing a recently played delver with our little goblin.
Ghoulcaller's Chant is great in this deck, not only it will recur creatures, it can bring back Nameless Inversion. For only one mana, you get to re-use 2 cards.
Ghoulraiser doesn't give you much control over the card that is coming back, but he is a pretty powerful card in this deck. Don't forget he can also return Nameless Inversion to hand.
I am sorry, I don't have a sideboard for this deck yet. I would guess it could have problens against fast hard to block combo decks, like izzet-fiend, selesnya-hexproof-auras and infect. So some of the sideboard could be dedicated to address those.
Also, graveyard hate is a problem. If you can't recur the graveyard, the deck is left with a bunch of bears that will probably be outsized by 4/4s and 5/5s. It is possible that some sort of defense against graveyard hate or some sort of alternative plan to put some pressure could be nice there.
We could go more beefy/aggro using bigger or evasive zombies and less graveyard recurring. Or splash some color to offer artifact removal. I guess I would try the first option, I guess there are some beefy zombies out there to abuse. (Embalmed Brawler?!)
That's it, cya! =)
segunda-feira, 7 de dezembro de 2015
Colors of MTGO Pauper: BLUE. (Deep Fountain)
I love monoblue, in MTGO pauper blue is a force to be reckoned. Sorry aggro players, but let's face it: some of the best pauper cards are blue.
In fact, there are so many powerful blue cards in pauper we have to pick one among some possible directions.
There are the monoblue aggro decks, abusing first turn delver, followed by ninjas and faeries. They are very popular, very fun to play and not an easy match for any deck.
We can go "counter everything" mode, using 10-12 or even 14-16 counterspells, pinched with a couple removal, some strategic defensive creatures (usually Spire Golem) and some flashy draw (like think twice).
It is possible to build tron blue, I don't think it is strong as multicolor tron decks, but it has its perks, like a more stable and easy to handle mana base. Sadly, many of the most powerful counterspells have UU in their costs, that hurtz monoblue tron a little bit.
Lately I have been playing a slightly different monoblue deck than most around. It has its perks and bad sides in the card choices. It doesn't carry a lot of counterspelling, but it has a pretty heavy lategame and has some versatiliy in the card interactions.
One card the deck tries to abuse is Deep Analisis, one of the most powerful draw spells available in pauper and yet you don't see a lot of decks using it, at least not in the maindeck. This is due to the fact Deep Analisis is a very slow card and the life pay really hurts. The good side is that it is very hard to counter and it will draw a ton of cards, making the late game of the deck a lot better.
Also I am not using deprive in the list. I know deprive is one of the most powerful counterspells around, but this deck really wants to drop lands. This deck is very mana costy, things start to get good when you reach 8, 9, 10 mana. I feel deprive would be a set back in this list.
Also, his is not very usual in pauper, I am running 25 lands, including a set of cycle lands, this helps to drop more lands early in the game. Later we can cycle the lands with help of some Azorius Chancery.
The list:
13 islands
4 lonely sandbar
4 azorius chancery
4 Radiant Fountain
Bounce/Removal:
3 Seal of Removal
3 Echoing Truth
4 Curse of Chains
Counter:
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
Draw:
4 Deep Analisis
1 Ghostly Flicker
Creatures:
4 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Archaeomancer
4 Mulldrifter
Sideboard:
4 Hydroblast
4 Coast Watcher
4 Annul
3 Dispel
So here is the plan:
Early game we have 10 bounce/removal to hold opponent back a bit. Then, midgame, we start to play draw spells (like mulldrifters and deep analisis), this is when we build our mana base up to 8-9-10 lands. Late game we abuse the power of archaeomancer, recycling counterspells and bounce.
Radiant Fountain helps to survive early game and helps to compensate the life paid for deep analisis. The bounce spells can be used to return our own creatures and draw more cards if you feel it is better.
Altho this is a very slow deck in the early turns considering pauper metagame, usually things start to turn a lot on your favor if you survive until 6th 7th turn and on.
In fact, there are so many powerful blue cards in pauper we have to pick one among some possible directions.
There are the monoblue aggro decks, abusing first turn delver, followed by ninjas and faeries. They are very popular, very fun to play and not an easy match for any deck.
We can go "counter everything" mode, using 10-12 or even 14-16 counterspells, pinched with a couple removal, some strategic defensive creatures (usually Spire Golem) and some flashy draw (like think twice).
It is possible to build tron blue, I don't think it is strong as multicolor tron decks, but it has its perks, like a more stable and easy to handle mana base. Sadly, many of the most powerful counterspells have UU in their costs, that hurtz monoblue tron a little bit.
Lately I have been playing a slightly different monoblue deck than most around. It has its perks and bad sides in the card choices. It doesn't carry a lot of counterspelling, but it has a pretty heavy lategame and has some versatiliy in the card interactions.
One card the deck tries to abuse is Deep Analisis, one of the most powerful draw spells available in pauper and yet you don't see a lot of decks using it, at least not in the maindeck. This is due to the fact Deep Analisis is a very slow card and the life pay really hurts. The good side is that it is very hard to counter and it will draw a ton of cards, making the late game of the deck a lot better.
Also I am not using deprive in the list. I know deprive is one of the most powerful counterspells around, but this deck really wants to drop lands. This deck is very mana costy, things start to get good when you reach 8, 9, 10 mana. I feel deprive would be a set back in this list.
Also, his is not very usual in pauper, I am running 25 lands, including a set of cycle lands, this helps to drop more lands early in the game. Later we can cycle the lands with help of some Azorius Chancery.
The list:
13 islands
4 lonely sandbar
4 azorius chancery
4 Radiant Fountain
Bounce/Removal:
3 Seal of Removal
3 Echoing Truth
4 Curse of Chains
Counter:
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
Draw:
4 Deep Analisis
1 Ghostly Flicker
Creatures:
4 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Archaeomancer
4 Mulldrifter
Sideboard:
4 Hydroblast
4 Coast Watcher
4 Annul
3 Dispel
So here is the plan:
Early game we have 10 bounce/removal to hold opponent back a bit. Then, midgame, we start to play draw spells (like mulldrifters and deep analisis), this is when we build our mana base up to 8-9-10 lands. Late game we abuse the power of archaeomancer, recycling counterspells and bounce.
Radiant Fountain helps to survive early game and helps to compensate the life paid for deep analisis. The bounce spells can be used to return our own creatures and draw more cards if you feel it is better.
Altho this is a very slow deck in the early turns considering pauper metagame, usually things start to turn a lot on your favor if you survive until 6th 7th turn and on.
quarta-feira, 25 de novembro de 2015
Colors of MTGO Pauper: GREEN. (Aggro Devotion)
Hi guys, I love MTGO pauper and I love to breed.
What I want to do is to explore all the five colors, with new breeds, or tuned existing decks.
I will do my best to explore 5 monocoloured decks and every possible 2 color combination.
I will try to make playable decks, that will at least have a chance against the metagame.
And the first deck I present you is pauper monogreen devotion!
I don't consider it a polished build yet, but it is a simple fun deck to play and it does well against a considerable part of the metagame.
Here is the build:
18 Forests
Survivors:
4 Young Wolf
4 Blisterpod
4 Safehold Elite
Devoted:
4 Nissa's Chosen
4 Garruk's Companion
4 Swordwise Centaur
Pumps:
4 Rancor
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Aspect of Hydra
4 Seal of Strength
Removal:
2 Prey Upon
Sideboard:
4 Aerial Volley
4 Seal of Primordium
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Scattershot Archer
So, the basic concept is very simple. We have a couple of "survivor" creatures, they are there to make a bit harder for your opponent to wipe your side of the table. When facing combat, they can also chump block and do some damage next turn.
The devoted creatures are slightly bigger than we pay for, having 3/2 or 2/3 status for 2 mana, but the really cool thing is how they help Aspect of Hydra get bigger. Sometimes aspect will pump 7, 8 damage each, that can get people of guard once in a while.
I kindda like blisterpod there, he is a nice creature for 1 mana. Being colorless helps sometimes against protection, COPs green, prismatic strands.
The deck should do well against a decent share of the field, so far I managed to beat a monoblue delver deck and (for my surprise) a delver-fiend deck. I lost to a torture existence deck with an eternal fog combo. Torture existence decks are very hard to beat with aggro, that is why I added a couple Relic of Progenitus to the sidebard, but I have my doubts on that, T.E. is not a very common deck in the queues and T.E. is not very useful against the rest of the field (not to mention it is not even a sure win against T.E. decks, they can easily find something to destroy it).
Also I am using 8 anti-flyer cards, that looks a bit of overkill against delver-faeries, it is not even the worst match we have, But the thing is that I honestly hate playing against delver-faeries, having a spellstutter sprite countering your stuff is very enervating, and what is the fun of playnig monogreen if you are not hating blue a little bit anyway ? ;)
I didn't face MBC so far but I guess the deck can handle it. The "survivor" guys can eat some removal, the pump spells can help there either.
White is a problem, soul sisters is probably very good against this deck, and turbo-fog or other fog based strategies are almost impossible to beat.
One thing to consider is adding some sort of direct damage to the sideboard to make the deck more versatile, the only card that comes to mind is viridian longbow, but that sounds a bit clunky in an 18 lands deck, anyone have some good idea ? =)
What I want to do is to explore all the five colors, with new breeds, or tuned existing decks.
I will do my best to explore 5 monocoloured decks and every possible 2 color combination.
I will try to make playable decks, that will at least have a chance against the metagame.
And the first deck I present you is pauper monogreen devotion!
I don't consider it a polished build yet, but it is a simple fun deck to play and it does well against a considerable part of the metagame.
Here is the build:
18 Forests
Survivors:
4 Young Wolf
4 Blisterpod
4 Safehold Elite
Devoted:
4 Nissa's Chosen
4 Garruk's Companion
4 Swordwise Centaur
Pumps:
4 Rancor
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Aspect of Hydra
4 Seal of Strength
Removal:
2 Prey Upon
Sideboard:
4 Aerial Volley
4 Seal of Primordium
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Scattershot Archer
So, the basic concept is very simple. We have a couple of "survivor" creatures, they are there to make a bit harder for your opponent to wipe your side of the table. When facing combat, they can also chump block and do some damage next turn.
The devoted creatures are slightly bigger than we pay for, having 3/2 or 2/3 status for 2 mana, but the really cool thing is how they help Aspect of Hydra get bigger. Sometimes aspect will pump 7, 8 damage each, that can get people of guard once in a while.
I kindda like blisterpod there, he is a nice creature for 1 mana. Being colorless helps sometimes against protection, COPs green, prismatic strands.
The deck should do well against a decent share of the field, so far I managed to beat a monoblue delver deck and (for my surprise) a delver-fiend deck. I lost to a torture existence deck with an eternal fog combo. Torture existence decks are very hard to beat with aggro, that is why I added a couple Relic of Progenitus to the sidebard, but I have my doubts on that, T.E. is not a very common deck in the queues and T.E. is not very useful against the rest of the field (not to mention it is not even a sure win against T.E. decks, they can easily find something to destroy it).
Also I am using 8 anti-flyer cards, that looks a bit of overkill against delver-faeries, it is not even the worst match we have, But the thing is that I honestly hate playing against delver-faeries, having a spellstutter sprite countering your stuff is very enervating, and what is the fun of playnig monogreen if you are not hating blue a little bit anyway ? ;)
I didn't face MBC so far but I guess the deck can handle it. The "survivor" guys can eat some removal, the pump spells can help there either.
White is a problem, soul sisters is probably very good against this deck, and turbo-fog or other fog based strategies are almost impossible to beat.
One thing to consider is adding some sort of direct damage to the sideboard to make the deck more versatile, the only card that comes to mind is viridian longbow, but that sounds a bit clunky in an 18 lands deck, anyone have some good idea ? =)
terça-feira, 10 de junho de 2014
Monowhite Devotion, um deck branco como a neve. ;)
Aparentemente pouco explorado, creio que monowhite devotion tem potencial para ser um dos decks mais fortes do ambiente. Principalmente depois de Journey into Nyx, que trouxe uma ou duas cartas chave para o arquétipo.
O truque para explorar o potencial completo desse deck é um splash azul, com algumas poucas spells-chave.
Segue a lista atual do deck:
24 terrenos:
8 Plains
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Mana Confluence
2 Azorius Guildgate
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2cc:
4 Precinct Captain
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
3cc:
4 Banishing Light
4 Detention Sphere
2 Spear of Heliod
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Boros Reckoner
3/4cc:
4 Eidolon of Countless Battles
6cc:
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3xcc:
4 Sphinx's Revelation
Sideboard
4 Last Breath
4 Celestial Flare
4 Dissolve
3 Jace, Memory Adept
Explicando algumas cartas:
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx:
É essencial na estratégia, na verdade uma das principais razões para jogar com esse deck. Em um jogo ideal, Nykthos pode ajudar a descer um Elspeth no quarto turno, ou jogar uma Sphinx's Revelation gigantesca no late game.
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram:
Você deve ter notado que esse deck é muito parecido com UW control, mas não utiliza Supreme Verdict, nem anulação maindeck. Para otimizar devotion, o deck tenta "segurar" o início de jogo com permanentes brancas. Nyx-Fleece é perfeito para esse trabalho, versátil pois bloqueia um terrestre, ganha vida e pode ser encantado com Eidolon of Battles. Não é a carta ideal contra controle mas não chega a ser uma carta morta, pois ele pode atacar quando encantado. E é uma peça excelente contra quase todos os decks, burn, weenie, até mesmo midrange, que frequentemente utiliza alguma criatura 4/x. A vida que ele ganha é útil também contra monoblack, que usa gray merchant para sugar a sua.
4 Banishing Light/4 Detention Sphere
Imagine ter esses caras lutando do seu lado da mesa:
2 Spear of Heliod
O truque para explorar o potencial completo desse deck é um splash azul, com algumas poucas spells-chave.
Segue a lista atual do deck:
24 terrenos:
8 Plains
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Mana Confluence
2 Azorius Guildgate
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2cc:
4 Precinct Captain
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
3cc:
4 Banishing Light
4 Detention Sphere
2 Spear of Heliod
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Boros Reckoner
3/4cc:
4 Eidolon of Countless Battles
6cc:
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3xcc:
4 Sphinx's Revelation
Sideboard
4 Last Breath
4 Celestial Flare
4 Dissolve
3 Jace, Memory Adept
Explicando algumas cartas:
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx:
É essencial na estratégia, na verdade uma das principais razões para jogar com esse deck. Em um jogo ideal, Nykthos pode ajudar a descer um Elspeth no quarto turno, ou jogar uma Sphinx's Revelation gigantesca no late game.
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram:
Você deve ter notado que esse deck é muito parecido com UW control, mas não utiliza Supreme Verdict, nem anulação maindeck. Para otimizar devotion, o deck tenta "segurar" o início de jogo com permanentes brancas. Nyx-Fleece é perfeito para esse trabalho, versátil pois bloqueia um terrestre, ganha vida e pode ser encantado com Eidolon of Battles. Não é a carta ideal contra controle mas não chega a ser uma carta morta, pois ele pode atacar quando encantado. E é uma peça excelente contra quase todos os decks, burn, weenie, até mesmo midrange, que frequentemente utiliza alguma criatura 4/x. A vida que ele ganha é útil também contra monoblack, que usa gray merchant para sugar a sua.
4 Banishing Light/4 Detention Sphere
Outra(s) carta(s) excelente(s) para segurar o jogo e contribuir com devotion. Ter 8 cartas que podem lidar com permanentes torna esse deck muito versátil.
4 Precinct Captain/3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
Além de contribuirem bem com devotion, esses caras funcionam incrivelmente bem com eidolon of battles. Encantar um deles muitas vezes pega o oponente de surpresa, e o token gerado só faz ele aumentar mais ainda. São excelentes em combate pois o oponente fica desestimulado a atacar.
4 Boros Reckoner
Além de ser super-chato para o oponente em combate, esse cara é o campeão da devotion. Pode se dizer que a dream-hand desse deck é Precinct Captain, seguido de Boros Reckoner, seguido de Nykthos e Elspeth. Claro que isso vai acontecer 1 em cada 1000 jogos, mas é uma sensação indescritível. ^^
Imagine ter esses caras lutando do seu lado da mesa:
Essa não é uma carta absolutamente essencial para a estratégia do deck. Mas encaixa bem e contribui para devotion. O deck tem muitos geradores de tokens e criaturas em geral. Deve ser muito louco atacar com um Nyx-Fleece Ram 1/6 não é mesmo ?
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Simplesmente umas das cartas mais fortes do standart atualmente. Nesse deck em particular todas as 3 habilidades podem ser muito úteis.
4 Sphinx's Revelation
Outra carta fortíssima se o jogo durar muito. Se o jogo ficar "stalled" contra a grande maioria dos decks, você acabará levando a melhor, por quê mais cedo ou mais tarde compra uma dessas e enche a mão de cartas.
SIDEBOARD:
4 Last Breath
Versátil, pode ser usado contra burn, eliminando Phoenix, contra monoblue e até mesmo para ganhar vida em alguns casos.
4 Celestial Flare
Com certeza o ponto fraco desse deck é protection from white. Essa carta tenta amenizar um pouco esse problema.
4 Dissolve
Aqui talvez seja melhor uma anulação que use menos mana azul, já que a base de mana é mais para branca. Pode ser usada contra decks de controle/combo em geral e talvez para ajudar a segurar protection from white.
3 Jace, Memory Adept
Contra decks de controle, em especial contra turbo_gate_fog, a habilidade de "millar" o oponente oferece uma alternativa para matá-lo.
É isso aí pessoal, na minha opinião, considerando o potencial desse deck, ele é muito pouco utilizado. Tem um início meio lento de vez em quando mas é fortíssimo no mid/late game. O legal é que apesar de ser control, é um deck com potencial agressivo, sem ficar naquele lenga-lenga do arquétipo draw go. Creio que lembra mais um estilo "tap-out-control", mas seria mais justo chamá-lo de "exile-out-control". =)
Espero que alguém goste do deck e vença alguma coisa com ele, rs.
Abraços e bons jogos.
Versátil, pode ser usado contra burn, eliminando Phoenix, contra monoblue e até mesmo para ganhar vida em alguns casos.
4 Celestial Flare
Com certeza o ponto fraco desse deck é protection from white. Essa carta tenta amenizar um pouco esse problema.
4 Dissolve
Aqui talvez seja melhor uma anulação que use menos mana azul, já que a base de mana é mais para branca. Pode ser usada contra decks de controle/combo em geral e talvez para ajudar a segurar protection from white.
3 Jace, Memory Adept
Contra decks de controle, em especial contra turbo_gate_fog, a habilidade de "millar" o oponente oferece uma alternativa para matá-lo.
É isso aí pessoal, na minha opinião, considerando o potencial desse deck, ele é muito pouco utilizado. Tem um início meio lento de vez em quando mas é fortíssimo no mid/late game. O legal é que apesar de ser control, é um deck com potencial agressivo, sem ficar naquele lenga-lenga do arquétipo draw go. Creio que lembra mais um estilo "tap-out-control", mas seria mais justo chamá-lo de "exile-out-control". =)
Espero que alguém goste do deck e vença alguma coisa com ele, rs.
Abraços e bons jogos.
quarta-feira, 24 de abril de 2013
M13 Draft Cool Combos
M13 combos!
After playing M13 draft for a while, I realized every color combination has some cool combos. Those small 2 or 3 cards interactions, can make some filler cards a lot better, some even make usually weak cards into powerful locks.
I'll cover combos in each 2 color combination, all of them have some interesting interactions!
Blue and Green:
I'll start with my favourite: Blue and Green!
Blue and Green is not a very played combination, but it is very powerful depending on the pool.
The raw power of green, combined with the stalling blue can provide, makes explosive combinations.
One of the core combos with blue and green is:
Returning a sorcery or an instant each turn can be really powerful, lets see some of the cards that can be recycled every turn with this engine:
Fog is an easy to get card, alone it is not so good, inside this engine it can be awesome, for 5 mana each turn, you get nearly unkillable.
Prey Upon can get rid of weenies, for a decent cost.
Green can make a good ground defense, recurring plummet can take care of the sky.
If you get to 8 mana, talrand's invocation and sleep are really powerful engines, they will probably win the game for you.
Augur of Bolas is not so bad either with Primadox, specially if you can grab a lot of instants and sorceries.
If you are in a more offensive deck:
Well well well, talk about a clock.
White and Green.
While this combination has lots of good quality creatures, it has a hard time interacting. If you can get an agressive start and a decent amount of medium range fatties to pressure, you are in good shape. But if that plan fails, it is hard to recover.
Lets look at some combos that can help the agressive role or can help interact a bit more:
Lets see another interaction:
If you can make that combo work, it be really good with those cards:
Griffin Protector can be a flying beatstick while you fill your table with tokens. Healer can REALLY ensure you will survive while you beat your opponent.
Those combos have some weak spots tho, one problematic card is chandra's fury:
Mark of the vampire is a powerful card, black can use disruption to help getting removal out of the way. Mark on an evasive decent body like boar can provide a very fast clock and a powerful way to survive at the same time.
Green and white has a lot of ways to produce tokens, so: Crusader of Odric can get very big in this archetype. Among the best starts for Crusader is playing: Elvish Visionary, it pumps Crusader, replacing itself, helping to dig for the token making cards.
Rancor is a powerful card, it is hard to get multiple copies of it (or even 1 copy sometimes). If you have that luck and you are playing GW, consider this interaction.
Rancor become a lot more powerful when it has multiple targets to land on. Create a 3/1 token, attack, if it gets blocked and die, you can cast rancor on the next guy. I works very well also with Attended Knight:
We have potential for a 4/2 First Strike, hard to block, or a 3/1 expendable token, not so bad either.
Another interesting combination:
Sentinel Spider is among the reasons to play green, a 4/4 vigilance with reach helps a lot in the beef department.
Vigilance is a lot better when you can get to attack every turn, Divine Favor helps a lot on that matter.
A 5/7 is very hard to kill, hard to block profitably, and can block nearly anything. Sometimes a later 5/7 with vigilance is a lot more useful than an early 3/5 bear. That can be blocked by any x/4 creature on the other side. (Lots of those available in M13 draft).
Lets see another interaction:
Fungal Sprouting is a problematic card, you need to have a big body in play to enable it. Prized Elephant is among the best options, 4 mana is not a lot for a 4/4 body, and 4 tokens for 4 mana isn't a bad deal.
If you can make that combo work, it be really good with those cards:
Griffin Protector can be a flying beatstick while you fill your table with tokens. Healer can REALLY ensure you will survive while you beat your opponent.
Those combos have some weak spots tho, one problematic card is chandra's fury:
Those sweepers can be a pain for token strategies, so be careful.
Another problem is the casting cost, we have 3 cards costing 4 mana. This can be a problem, make sure you have some cheaper defense cards there to hold, so you have time to enable the combos.
Talking about Ajani's Sunstriker, here is another interesting interaction:
Gaining 6 life early game sure helps survive until the big guys start attacking.
Also:
Swift Justice can be a pretty good combat trick if you have big guys out, also:
First strike + Deathtouch, what else could I ask for ?
Serpent's gift is not a very good card, but if you happen to have a lot off Attended Knights, it gets a lot better! Sadly, there aren't many other first strikers in the set.
You probably nottest GW is not the most comboish color ever. Most of the combos are more based on the raw power of creatures and some combat tricks to gain life. It can actually be a very fun color combination to play if you can tune your deck properly, not a very easy task to do but can compensate.
Black and Red:
Black and red has a lot of inbuilt combos, lets start by taking a look at my favourite!
(black disruption)
Another interesting interaction:
Mogg Flunkies is a confused guy, he needs a friend to point the way. Tormented Soul is one of the best friends he could have, fast enabling that early 3/3 body, won't die in combat, giving it more chance to go on and on. On the bad side, soul can't help Flunkies to block, but then again, who want's to block at all ?
Dark Favor doesn't pump toughness a lot, well, it is a perfect fit for Crimson Muckwacker. Nothing like a 6/3 regenerating lizard, attacking every turn to make your day. (be careful with pacifism tho).
Oldest trick on the book, well, vampires need food to ease their hunger. Why not bring some food from the other side of the table ?
The vampire also has some appetite for goblins:
Arsonist can give a little payoff for pump, krenko can provide food twice, not bad fillers in a fast deck.
Usually, Black Red decks are fast and aggressive. Sometimes, if you happen to get a lot of removal and not so many quality creatures, you can go a more controlish route, in that case:
Rummaging Goblin can be awesome with Veilborn Ghoul, each time you get a swamp you can "gain a free card". Wild Guess, usually not a very good card, can be pretty sweet also. Early game, discard Veilborn and draw 2 cards, later just play Veilborn as a consistent kill condition.
If you get removal early, those cards can be very nice later picks.
Ok, this is a longshot, but if you happen to have some big fatties you would like to revive, there is a combo:
Sadly, most BIG expensive bombs are offcolor, this might be an option for 3 color decks tho, since the cards aren't so bad alone anyway. How about that green 7/7 trample or some 8/8 islandwalk for 5 mana ?
Red and Green
Like WhiteGreen, RedGreen is based more on the raw power and speed, not so much in comboish cards, some interactions are worth mentioning though.
Kindled Fury is no Swift Justice, but in that case it does the trick. If you are worried about defense, that can mean 2 less creatures attacking, even if they fly. Not so bad in offensive situations, Deadly might be a Flunkie Enabler.
Talking about our confused friend:
Isn't Boar a fitting glove for Flunks ? Not many things can be as agressive as those 2 in a row.
If you happen to build a ramp deck (not very easy task to do, but...) this interaction is worth mentioning. No mana is to much mana when we talk about Volcanic Geyser. ^^
Prey Upon needs big creatures to work, Volcanic Strentgh pumps both power and toughness at very low cost. For only 3 mana you can pump your creature, attack, and use prey upon to kill something.
Black and Green:
This color combination is among the most comboish, some powerful interactions can appear. Also, it is among the most powerful, green's raw power and black solid removal, a good pool in this color is hard to deal with.
Lets start with:
If you grab Acidic early, disentomb is not hard to pick late at all. It feels like xmas when you pull this one of.
5 mana, acidic, bye land.
block, bye attacker.
6 mana, disentomb, acidic AGAIN, bye another land, ready to block again.
Talk about value!
Next:
Black has some nice enablers for Primadox.
Who wouldn't use those 2 anyway ? But yeah, they are stronger in combo mode.
In case you get no black creature to equip, or if you need defense, a regenerating Recluse can make a bad deal to attack you.
If you happen to grab lots of early Mark of the Vampire early, and see some Primal Huntbeast passing by, consider this one. Hard to deal with, this 5/5 gaining 5 life every turn, can define a game very quickly.
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